A poem for a Thursday

I'm totally frustrated with my family members right now (you know, the ones who say that we're going to be watching the baby and then never show up and never call???), so all my writing is rant rant ranty rant.

Instead of subjecting you all to that, I thought I'd post one of the poems I'm in love with from this amazing book.

(I'm pretty sure I can post it, so long as I include the author's name... the blogosphere is full of all these tricky situations, ain't it just?)


So, anyways, here's a poem for you, on this Thursday:


It Is Raining on the House of Anne Frank

by Linda Pastan

It is raining on the house
of Anne Frank
and on the tourists
herded together under the shadow
of their umbrellas,
on the perfectly silent
tourists who would rather be
somewhere else
but who wait here on stairs
so steep they must risee
to some occasion
high in the empty loft,
in the quaint toilet,
in the skeleton
of a kitchen
or on the map -
each of its arrows
a barb of wire -
with all the dates, the expulsions,
the forbidding shapes
of continents.
And across Masterdam it is raining
on the Van Gogh Museum
where we will hurry next
to see how someone else
could find the pure
center of light
within the dark circle
of his demons.

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How amazing is that? For me, it was all about "on stairs /so steep they must rise/ to some occasion." It's a beautiful poem. Just amazing.

And the book , Good Poems for Hard Times by Garrison Keillor, is packed with little gems. I borrowed my copy from the library, got about 15 pages (and 8 sticky notes) into it before I put in a request for it over at Paperback Swap.

So, that's what's what for today. Will go read some more, refrain from writing nasty e-mails to careless loved-ones, and listen to the rain here in Massachusetts.

How was your day?